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“I would havefrom a box of Cracker Jack” Julia looked at her hand wistfully “I would haveI don’t care about this kind of stuff”

Exactly I could have never given her a ring like that But Julia is the kind of girl ould be happy with next to nothing, provided she loved the guy enough

“He paid off my student loans,” she offered quietly

“What, all of the to consolidate the them”

Paul whistled “Thatused to—the fact that we share everything including a bank account I had a very sotin Caer to learn how h to Harvard so I can walk Which is good, because I don’t drive” Julia sounded sheepish

“You don’t? Why not?”

“I kept getting lost and ending up in sketchy neighborhoods I called Gabriel froht and he had a fit And that was after I’d used the GPS”

“How did you end up in Dorchester?”

“The GPS screwed up It didn’t recognize one-way streets It even told h one of the underpasses So I ended up farther and farther away from my house After that, I quit”

“You don’t drive at all?”

“Not in the greater Boston area Gabriel’s Range Rover is difficult to park and I was alorried I was going to hit soet e to ites, and settled on one

“Why doesn’t he get you a new car? Obviously, he can afford it”

“I want so small, like a Smart car or one of those new Fiats Gabriel says they’re like driving a can of tuna” She sighed “He wants er, like a Hu on invading Baghdad? Or just Charlestown?”

“Very funny If I can’t parallel park the Range Rover, how the hell a the door to the restaurant

Before he could ask the host for a table for two, a coirl, as probably three or four years old, was hitting a button on her book repeatedly, generating a few bars of a song over and over again

As the girl continued this behavior, Paul and Julia looked around the restaurant The other patrons were less than i a hijab tried to persuade the girl to exchange her irl shrieked in protest

It was at thatnear theirl He further co his lunch and that children who cannot behave themselves should not be allowed in restaurants

The woain to persuade her daughter to switch books But once again, the girl refused, kicking loudly against the table leg

At that moment, the host approached them